The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Anne’s diaries were retrieved by Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. Miep gave them to Anne’s father, Otto Frank, the family’s only survivor, just after the Second World War was over.
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl – Wikipedia
I have read a number of Holocaust memories, including Elli and If This Is a Man, but for whatever reason, I had never read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. I came upon a reading by Helena Bonham Carter on Libby.
The book itself is not dour, even though the context certainly is. Beyond serving as a document of life in hiding during the war, the book provides the reader inside the mind of the author and explore various topics, such as adolescence and sexuality. It definitely put complaints about lockdown learning into perspective. All in all, it was a strange read knowing the outcome.
One of the things that I was left wondering is how much was actually known. For example, Frank makes mention of people being gassed. She also gives a running update of the Allies. In a pre-internet world, how was such information actually communicated? Was this all via radio? If so, how? What roll did word of mouth play?
Highlights
“What one Christian does is his own responsibility, what one Jew does reflects on all Jews.”
Anyone who claims that the older folks have a more difficult time in the Annex doesn’t realize that the problems have a far greater impact on us. We’re much too young to deal with these problems, but they keep thrusting themselves on us until, finally, we’re forced to think up a solution, though most of the time our solutions crumble when faced with the facts. It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It’s a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals. Perhaps the day will come when I’ll be able to realize them!